Technology is significantly advancing nowadays. Every day, we get to hear about a new discovery. Come to think of the next two decades. What will our generation talk about? Expect more to come in the current buzz about the autonomous cars. In case you just heard about them, below are some of the facts you should know about the autonomous cars:

Various publications are on record about the concerns that Elon Musk has over the hazards of Artificial Intelligence (A.I.). However, the business mogul, who is credited with founding SpaceX and Tesla, indicates that he is worried of only one company out of all that are currently involved in developing self-aware computers. He is of the opinion that people should just spend their little time in trying to develop applications that will change the world even in the smallest magnitude. Elon Musk is the pioneer of various companies, such as Solar City, SpaceX, and Tesla Motors, all of which carry his vision of changing the world and the human life at large.

E.L.E is the abbreviation for Extinction Level Event – it describes the apocalyptic event which leads to a rapid and significant decrease in the biodiversity of our planet. In other words, whole groups of species becoming extinct. In the history of our planet, at least five major extinction events happened with the well-known asteroid impact 60 million years ago leading to the demise of dinosaurs being the last and the most famous of them. Such events are quite rare, but it is clear that they do happen. What if we will face such an event in the future? There are some forces of nature that humankind won’t be able to defeat and the only chance would be to evacuate the Earth. But is it even possible? Can we realistically think about something like that?

It is widely believed that there are 15,375 nuclear weapons in possession of 9 countries. The overwhelming majority of nukes is owned by the United States or Russia as each of these two countries have more than 7,000 weapons. Such a number of nuclear weapons which can release their deadly power is quite scary, don’t you think? Sometimes, it is being said that the global nuclear stockpile is so huge that it can destroy the Earth itself. In fact, it is not that bad, the energy hidden in all of our nuclear weapons is equal to 25% of the energy of the big tsunami. But it is where the optimism ends. In the case of a global nuclear conflict, in which superpowers will decide to release their warheads, environmental damage will be so huge that the global apocalypse will be inevitable and the life as we know it today would certainly come to an end.

Professor Stephen Hawking has made it obvious that he is sure artificial intelligence will be the end of mankind. As a devoted British scientist, he is well aware of the dangers associated with concentrating on robotics too much in the name of making life easy and convenient. He spoke to BBC saying, “The development of full artificial intelligence could spell the end of the human race.”

Autonomous means having the capability to self-govern. Autonomous refers to good performance under specific uncertainties in the environment, for a period of time and the ability to compensate for the system failures without any external intervention. These cars are automobiles that have the capacity of apprehending the environment and mapping in it without any instruction by humans. They can perceive their surroundings using variety of skills that includes Odometry, radar, GPS and lidar. These facilitated control systems elucidate information to judge navigation paths and any obstacles or important signage. These cars have sensors, which have the capability of analysing sensory data to differentiate between numbers of cars on road.

If humanity survives the rise of artificial intelligence, the ravages of climate change and the threat of nuclear terrorism in the next century, it doesn’t mean we’re home free, according to Stephen Hawking.

The renowned theoretical physicist has gone as far as providing humanity with a deadline for finding another planet to colonize: We have 1,000 years.

Stephen Hawking, the name that requires no introduction, has given a gentle warning to the whole race of humanity that we probably have only 1000 more years left on earth, and setting up new colonies on some other planets in the Solar System is the only thing that could save the race. Hawking’s estimation did not even consider the devastating global climatic challenges and nuclear capabilities of ready to war nations. He believes that we soon are going to encounter our enemies, whom we’re not even close to knowing how to deal with.